


Heaven on Earth

by nica00



Category: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Angst, Love, M/M, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 04:58:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13228554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nica00/pseuds/nica00
Summary: Modern day Achilles and Patroclus being in love basically. This is my first fic, I would love some feedback on the writing and grammatical errors and what not. If this sucks, I'm sorry in advance lol





	Heaven on Earth

_Achilles!_ I choke as I attempt to retrieve his body from the fight. They are on the ground, Achilles straddling Hector’s torso as his hands smashed in his face. I keep begging him to stop, but he does not hear my pleading in his feral state. He just keeps hitting him, his fists restless as he beats against the other’s skin. I wrap my hands against his torso and attempt to pull him from Hector. They were gonna kill each other.

 _Please stop, please_ I cry hugging his back as I pull him. When Hector punches his jaw again and he weakens I manage to pull him from the boy. His legs are dangling trying to free himself from my grip, but I just hold tighter. If I let him go now I didn't know what could happen. He kicks Hector in the face before I manage to pull him away completely. Don't you ever lay a hand on him, never again he growls at the boy. He was yelling, his voice fierce with anger. Hector layed on the floor, his shirt was covered in blood, his own and Achilles. He sits up and clutches his nose. I drag Achilles by his arm and grab our stuff.

 _What the hell Achilles?_ I yell as we walk away. He seems even more upset than I was.

 _What? He should have known better than to touch you. He's lucky I didn't fuck him up worse_ he rages, in disbelief that I was upset.

 _Achilles, you broke his nose. He just shoved me and split my lip. You didn't have to do that. I’m fine!_ Im screaming by now, and tears leave my eyes. Im trembling with fear, my nerves getting the best of me. We leave the courtyard and start heading to the campus library.

 _Oh my god, look at you_ I say as I clutch his face in my hands. Achilles’s knuckles were covered in blood and his light hair is also slightly tainted red in the tips. His jaw was starting to turn purple from the punches, he was surely going to have bruises all over it. The skin under his eyes is raw and I look away, refusing to look at him right now. I'm so nervous that I can't stop crying. I hate reacting like this, it made me feel so weak. My head is pounding and I feel like I can't breathe. He grabs my shoulders and wipes my tears away.

 _You're shaking_ he says quietly.

 _Of course I'm fucking shaking, if you would have seen yourself you would be too_ I answer him roughly, regretting it instantly.

 _Are you seriously this upset? He punched you Patroclus, did you expect me to walk away? Your lip is bleeding. You hit your head when he pushed you,_ he tells me.

 _I never want to see you like that, never. You left yourself I cried. You didn't even recognize my voice when I begged you to stop it. You can't just beat anyone that calls us fags, Achilles. I don't want you going around hurting people, what if someday someone is stronger and you get seriously hurt?_ I half yell.

 _I love that you worry_  He says as he pulls me close, placing a kiss to my cheek and moving to my neck, sucking on the bruises he had previously left on it. I push him away,

 _Don't even try me right now, Achilles_ I say. We keep walking until we reach the library. By the time we get there, my tears have ceased, though I still felt really jumpy. I call my friend Briseis, she was a med student. She could help me deal with Achilles state, and check him for injuries.

 _Hey Bri, I need a favor. Im at the library, okay, yes bring it, see you in 5._ I hang up and gesture Achilles to sit in one of the cushioned chairs. He ignores me and leans in to meet my lips but I move my head to the side, denying him.

 _Your lip is bleeding_ I tell him, my gaze fixed on the carpeted floor, refusing to meet his verdant eyes.

 _So is yours_ he says, licking his thumb and wiping the blood from my upper lip. I sigh and clutch my face in my hands, still shaken up from the previous events. His hands trace my scalp, looking for injuries from where my head hit the ground outside. I sigh and he keeps moving his hands in search of my injury, when he gets close Briseis arrives on cue, carrying her medical case. She greets us and sits him down. She checks his eyes, and cleans the wounds under his eye where Hector had popped him. Briseis covers his hands with bandages, after checking it for fractures.

 _Don’t move it for a while, try to keep it as still as possible since it's still fragile. You almost fractured it_ , she tells him. I wince at the memory of it all, the sight of him as he tore Hector apart.

 _I’m going to the bathroom_ I say and he quickly grabs my hips and drags me to sit on his leg.

 _He hit his head,_ he informs her, clenching his teeth so hard I saw the movement in his jaw. She moves behind me and I point out where it hurt. She feels it with her hand, and nods faintly.

 _It’s not gonna be a problem, just put some ice on it once you get home to prevent swelling_ she says, but I can tell that she is speaking directly to Achilles. He nods and looks up at me with soft eyes. He was back now, his kind eyes and plump lips are relaxed. I couldn't help but remember the way that mouth snarled at the boy, and the way his now kind eyes were cold as ice. Even in his now damaged state he looked god like. His long hair hung above his shoulders, golden and glowing against his pale skin. The blood looked crimson on his face. He had fine facial features, sharp jaw and nose. Despite the blood, he looked unbothered and regal as he talked to Briseis and thanked her. He squeezes my hips, gesturing me to get up from his leg. I do so and he swings his arm around my shoulder, Briseis and him walking beside me, their conversation blurry in my busy mind. They walk to the coffee shop inside the library and we stand in line.

 _I’m gonna go sit_ I tell them, and detour to the side, his arm sliding off my shoulder weakly as I leave him taken aback at my sudden departure. I sit down and I look to them to find him already looking at me, a puzzled look in his face. I look away and fix my gaze to the suddenly super interesting chair in front of mine. I start to think about how much everything has changed. I met Achilles when we were seven. I always liked him, ever since I saw him. When I finally talked to the golden boy, I liked him even more. We became attached at the hip ever since. We would play outside all day in the mud, watched movies and raced each other everywhere. When we entered our teenage years our interests changed. We realized it wasn’t just friendship that made us want to be with each other all the time, but something else. We always felt that way I know now, but he never gave signs until we turned 15. We had changed so much, in a few summers we looked like totally different people. Even back then he was tall, wasn’t short myself but he was taller, he always had been. He had a lithe body and a beautiful face. I remember sleeping at each other's houses, using whatever excuse we could get to be close. A test, homework, a movie marathon. He would always fall asleep first, so I would stare for hours. He woke up and saw me a few times, but we didn't speak of it. He did the same, shamelessly staring while I was awake so he didn't hold it against me. He was smart, so intelligent that I could listen to him talk for hours. I lost count of all the times he made up stories in our early childhood to get me to go to sleep. I would braid his hair and drift to the sound of his soft voice filling my ears. Achilles teached me about so many things that I don’t even remember my interests before him. We grew together, and share so much in common it’s like he reads my mind sometimes. I love it. He is ethereal, when I was younger I questioned why he had stuck with me for so long. In school, I was average and I wasn’t the most interesting person to be around, but he was, and with his looks and charming personality he was bound to get attention, but he always preferred to be with me. It was an anomaly to everyone how he would get invited to parties and preferred to spend weekends in my house eating ice cream or in his pool, with the sun glimmering in his tousled hair and his skin scorching in the light. His laughter echoes in my head as I remember the day that he got a really bad sunburn because we fell asleep by the chairs in the pool. My darker skin wasn’t sensitive to the sun, but since he was so fair skinned the slightest exposure to the sun made his skin redden viciously. He was wearing his Ray Bans and when we woke up, he took them off. I laughed so hard at the burn marks that I cried. He walked inside and saw himself in the mirror and we were laughing for like a week. We were the only constant in each others lives, and despite the way our lives and circumstances changed, we did not. We survived divorces, high school, puberty, existential crises and so many things that it was impossible for me to imagine my life without Achilles in it. It was impossible for me not to adore him with everything I had. I didn’t care about much in life, but when I met him he mattered. The way he light up a room and remained oblivious of the effects of his presence, I had never seen anything like it. The way he laughed and the way his words were like music to my ears. I am pulled away from my thoughts as I hear their footsteps approach and Briseis waves at me. I send her a questioning look as she walks by me, coffee in hand and tells me she’s got to head to class. I grab my phone and send her a quick thank you text. Briseis and I are close, but I haven't seen much of her because she's really busy with med-school. But we were always there when we needed each other. Last month I picked her up from some guys house at 3 in the morning. He was getting handsy with her and she called me terrified, and me and Achilles went to get her.We could count on each other when things got messy.

Achilles sits across from me and begins to drink his coffee. He places a cup in front of me, and I wrap my hands around it, feeling the warmth of the tea on my fingers. I don’t have to taste it to know it is raspberry, my favorite. I stare down at my fingers and he sighs in defeat, propping his elbows on the table.

 _I’m not sorry_ he says, grabbing my face and gesturing me to face him.

 _I know you aren't_ I say, calmer than he expected. I could tell by the glimmer in his eyes that he was relieved, and meant every word he had said. I bring the tea to my lips and swallow the hot liquid.

 _I had never seen you like that_ I say quietly afterwards.

 _Patroclus, you'd seen me fight before. Remember, that guy from the football team that was giving that kid a swirly in the bathroom. Remember? The kid was choking on the water?_ He asks me, oblivious of his crudeness.

 _I remember_ I say and shriek at the memory.

 _That’s not what I meant. You were animalistic, you kept pounding him until you saw blood, and then some._ I look down at his bloodstained knuckles and reach for them, he pulls my hand to his mouth and presses a kiss to my knuckles.

 _I’m not sorry for what I did, but I am sorry If I scared you, that was the last thing that I wanted_ he says softly.

 _He deserved it_ he whispers.

 _Achilles, you broke his nose_ I say as if stating the obvious.

 _You can't just go around hurting people because they were acting a certain way towards me. We have to get that under control_ I say, staring back at him.

 _You speak as if he didn't do anything to you_. _He hurt you, what did you expect? When I saw the blood dripping from your lips, my lips..._ he says grabbing my face and brushing his thumb over my mouth carefully.

 _I wasn't thinking. Instinct took over_ he tells me truthfully.

 _Besides_ he starts, smirking at me, his hands still cupping my face.

_Don’t act all innocent, I know how you can get. You think I didn’t notice you spilling your water on the floor of that diner down in Ellensburg._

I know exactly what he’s talking about, and I rub my eyes to hide my face in embarrassment. Our waitress had been flirting with him all night, while we were having dinner with our families. She eyed him up and down as she walked behind him, he sat across from me, and the girl kept giggling and making eyes at him. She even had the audacity to grab his hand when she handed him his milkshake. He wasn't interested, I could tell, but he wasn't rude enough to tell her to go away. Instead, he smiled politely and continued to talk to my mother. But when she actually reached out and caressed Achilles hair, my hair I had enough. I “accidentally” knocked my water over when she came with our check and she slipped and fell. It wasn’t my finest hour. It's one of those petty / embarrassing moments I think about when I'm trying to go to sleep. I even helped her up, but the blank look I gave her, and the small scowl she responded with assured me she knew what happened. She handed my dad the check and left hurriedly. As I repeat, not my finest hour.

 _Don’t do that, Don’t hide from me_ he says, gently tugging my hands away from my face.

 _She touched your hair_ I explain quietly, _And I wasn't very fond of sharing back then_ I mutter embarrassed. It seems stupid and possessive now but I was young and desperately in love. His mouth curls into a smile as he leans closer still. He wasn’t even mine when the dinner incident happened, we were 14, but I still worshipped him from afar. I didn't think he knew about the “accident” with the water.

 _How did you know? I ask him and he chuckles before saying Patroclus, you're my best friend, I know when you're annoyed. And your face gave it all away, when she touched me you looked like you wanted to cry and rip your hair out. Little did you know, I only saw you in that diner_  he says smugly and laughs. I roll my eyes and I say

 _Still, she should have known better than to touch you_ I tell him. He nods, looking at me intently and says

 _Glad you understand_. Realization hits me and I nod in agreement. If it was the other way around I would have probably left the guy unconscious “He should have known better than to hurt you. He's lucky I didn't fuck him up worse” Achilles's previous words echo in my head.

 _You're right_ I say, _If it was the other way around, we would probably be in jail by now_ I tell him and he stifles a laugh, pressing a soft kiss to my temple. We finish our drinks and walk to our apartment, a few blocks from the campus library. When we get there, Achilles kisses me sweetly. I swear I never get tired of the feeling of it. I could kiss him all day. Afterwards, he leaves me dizzy from his touch in the couch and goes into the kitchen and starts to make food. This isn't gonna end well, him being a horrible, and I mean utterly horrible cook. He is good with arts, painting and music and singing. But in the culinary arts, he is a menace to society. I let him cook anyways since he likes to do it. Hell, I'll even eat his crappy lasagna and tell him it's great, I don't have the heart to tell him it isn’t any good. I keep the fire extinguisher handy and let him do his thing. He almost burned his mom’s kitchen down when he was younger frying some chicken. We were almost 20 now and thankfully, he was improving with the years. The glimmer of hope in his eyes and his smile when the food _did_ turn out okay made my day, and If that made him happy who was I to take that from him? From us? When he was happy, I was happy and that was all that mattered. And who couldn't be happy with a smile like his around? It felt like the sun was shining in your face. I lay on the couch, and ice pack pressed to the back of my head and fall asleep to Achilles cursing in the kitchen, rummaging through the drawers trying to find a whisk or something, and then the sound of his airy voice singing along to soft music. I smile as I my eyelids grow heavy, This is _heaven on earth_ I think to myself, letting sleep consume me and shutting my eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback would be awesome!!!!!!! U rock for making it this far.  
> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
